Friday, 17 August 2007

UK Warhawk pricing announced; looks fair

Until now we only knew the US pricing, but UK pricing has now been revealed and I have to say I'm happy about it.

Warhawk will be £19.99 for the download version and £39.99 for the Blu-ray package (although GAME are listing it at under £35). The retail package will ship with a bluetooth headset in the price.

Since this is virtually a straight conversion between dollars and pounds (the US download is $40; £20.16 using today's rate) we're happy that on this title at least, the UK isn't being ripped off.

Personally, I'll be going for the download version. Bluetooth headsets don't work so well for multiplayer gaming in comparison to USB headsets. I'll stick with my wired device and go for the instant gratification of grabbing my copy from the PSN on the 28th August or thereabouts.

For your information, the retail version still shows a 14th September release date at the moment - we'll see what happens if and when the PSN version hits the Store this month.

Thursday, 16 August 2007

Euro PSN updates for 16th August

"What exciting joyous morsels are we receiving on the Euro PS Store today" I hear you cry...

None.

Well, certainly not any exciting or joyous updates.

We are getting the Armoured Core 4 demo you probably already downloaded and played form the US Store weeks ago.

We are getting some more Heavenly Sword backgrounder movies which you've almost certainly already seen on YouTube.

Other than that - nothing.

No Ratchet & Clank demo again, even though we know it's finished and ready to roll. No additional games. No movie trailers.

Considering the Chairman of Sony is a Brit (and a Knight, to boot), why do you think we Europeans get the short end of the PS Store content stick and pay higher prices for our PS3 hardware than anywhere else in the world?

Wednesday, 15 August 2007

Madden '08; might be 60fps on the X360, but who cares with bugs like these!

As we know, the Xbox 360 version of Madden '08 runs at 60fps, whereas the PS3 version runs at 30fps.

There's a simple answer for that, and that answer comes from EA's technical team:

"In the case of the next-generation consoles, many publishers have been developing titles for the Xbox 360 for over three and a half years while everyone who publishes now for the PS3, with the exception of Sony, has been developing for the PS3 for only a little over one full year. With newer technology, it is very difficult to get it right the first time."

So imagine how much I chuckled when I saw this video of how wonderful the Xbox 360 version's glitches and bugs look in full 60fps glory! [NSFW language]

Rock Band unlikely to appear in 2007; worldwide delay

Due most likely to a difficulty in producing sufficient quantities of the various instruments for Rock Band, it is being reported that EA are now unlikely to have the much-anticipated title out before Christmas.

There have been reports that this delay would only affect Australia and New Zealand, but fresh information suggests it is a worldwide issue.

This means that Guitar Hero III will get a serious drop on the rival title and should, by all reports, take the Christmas sales top-slot.

Great stand setup pictures from Leipzig

Take a look at the official blog for the Leipzig GC today. There's a whole bunch of excellent pictures showing the nearly-completed stands for the show including the main PS3 stand, Time Crisis 4, Ratchet & Clank and a PlayStation Network space.

Fatal Inertia demo now not coming this week

You know, when you get dozens of news tips a day from your friends, colleagues and partners from all over the world, sometimes you make a mistake.

And this is one of those times.

Yes, we should have sought out the original press release and not gone on the N4G news link.

Yes we should have spotted that the supposed release date wasn't 'on a Thursday' and so it was unlikely to be true

Nevertheless, the Fatal Inertia demo isn't coming to the Euro PS Store this week as we reported. Koei have themselves have come out and said it is not going to be available on the PS3, so it must be true!

Monday, 13 August 2007

Sega Rally Revo looks like style over substance

Have a look at this video of the tropical environment in Sega Rally Revo for the PS3.

Undoubtedly the game 'looks' great. Rippling water. Trees blowing in the wind.

But when the cars enter the scene, they just don't look right at all. They land like no car would land. They move like no car would move. They just don't look like real cars at all.

Yeah - I know - there's a big disclaimer that says the sound and vision is 'under construction' and all that. And yeah - I know - that Sega Rally has never been known for it's 'simulation' qualities, being more of an arcade racer. But honestly, tell me you didn't expect more than this...

As well as forthcoming Euro demos of Bladestorm (which you may have downloaded via the Japanese store) and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam (which you may have downloaded via the US store), we're going to get a demo of Fatal Inertia on the Euro store tomorrow.

This trio of Koei demos proves that not every single Koei game relies heavily on mashing the 'square' button until the current wave of 3,000 enemies have been vanquished. No. In fact, only 90% of Koei games rely on that particular technique!

Fatal Inertia is a futuristic 'hover car' game in the mould of Wipeout. Download it tomorrow and see for yourself what it's all about.

As a sidenote, the fact that the demo is available tomorrow does knock out all those 'Unreal Engine' related issues that seemed for such a long time to be holding up the PS3 version of Koei's racing game. In fact, this PS3 demo comes only a few days after the Xbox 360 version hit their Marketplace...

Sunday, 12 August 2007

PS3 so indestructible even The Terminator is impressed...

In an incredible test of courage, the PS3 recently took on a number of tests in the name of science to find out if the much-lauded 1% failure rate that some high street stores had experienced was fact or urban myth.

PS3Vault ran the PS3 for 108 hours in each of the following environments:

A typical family room with a brutal temperature of 73 FFour days in the back of a freezer van at 0 FIn a sauna with a cool 120 F air temperature

Did the PS3 flicker? Did it falter? Did it flop?

No.

Awesome! The only downside to this, of course, is it doesn't bode too well for Sony's Continuous Play insurance scheme. After all, if it never breaks, why would you need to fix it!?